This invention relates to ice skates, and more particularly to ice skate blades having a configuration which enhances skating performance.
A modem ice skate, such as an ice hockey skate, has a boot portion, a blade-holding system attached to the underside of the boot portion, and an ice-carving metal blade held by the blade-holding system. Typically, the metal blade is removable from the blade-holding system, allowing old, worn out blades to be replaced when necessary.
Skate blades have not changed much over the past number of decades. They are typically simply long, thin plates, having sharpened bottom edges for contacting the ice.
Blades for different types of skates may have different configurations. For example, the newest speed skating blades are very long, and flat. Hockey skate blades, on the other hand, are shorter, and may have a curvature, or a xe2x80x9crockxe2x80x9d to them. This curvature decreases the amount of power a skater can transmit to the carving surface (the ice), since it decreases the portion of the blade touching the ice at any one time, but it also increases the skater""s mobility and manoeuverability. It is this aspect of skate blades which has been experimented with and developed most recently by others. There has been little development of other aspects of blades.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,036,840, which issued to L. I. Norgiel on May 29, 1962, shows a skate blade similar in some aspects to the one which is the subject of the present invention. The similarity lies in the flare of the very bottom portion of the blade, as shown in FIG. 5 of that patent. However, the blade shown in the Norgiel patent has many shortcomings which preclude its use in modem hockey skates. For one, it is wider in the middle of the blade, and narrow at the ends. This configuration, while perhaps suitable for figure skating blades, is not preferred for hockey skate blades. Second, the blade does not have a consistent angle of flare over its entire length. It furthermore cannot be easily machined, but rather, is only easily constructed by forging, which is possible only with materials of lesser hardness than preferable to maintain a sharp edge.
The present invention provides an ice skate blade offering enhanced skating performance. The blade has an upper portion comprising two parallel substantially vertical left and right sides and a lower portion comprising two lower faces, each lower face extending downwardly and outwardly from the bottom of one of the sides at an angle of between 4xc2x0 and 12xc2x0 from the vertical. The lower faces having lower edges bounding between them the bottom surface of the blade. The bottom surface is preferably concave.
In a preferred embodiment, the upper faces have a width between them of 3 mm, and the lower edges are parallel and have a width between them of between 4 mm and 5 mm. Most preferably, the lower faces extend outwardly at an angle of 8xc2x0 from the vertical.
The skate blade of the preferred embodiment also comprises means for attaching the blade to an ice skate.